Market Share

A new report from Kantar Worldpanel shows that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales continued at a brisk pace leading up to November 2014. The new iPhones accounted for 47.4 percent of smartphone sales in the US, an increase of 4.3 percent from the same time in 2013. The iPhone 6 was recorded as the best-selling smartphone three months in a row, achieving a market share of 19 percent. Verizon and AT&T made up 57 percent of iOS sales during this time.

Apple's waning tablet market share with slow iPad sales may be have been over exaggerated given the new tablet market share data. While it's true that iPad market share have slipped slightly, Apple still commands a lead with 79.9 percent of the tablet usage market in Q4 2014 in North America, down from 81.1 percent from a year ago.

ComScore had released its mobile market share data for the September 2014. In terms of OEM market share, Apple took the lead with 41.7 percent market share whereas Android was seen as the leading platform with its market share divided between Samsung, LG, Motorola, and HTC. On the Android device manufacturer side, both Samsung (29%) and LG (6.9%) showed a slight uptick in market share compared with the prior quarter ended in June, whereas both Motorola (5.4%) and HTC (4.4%) suffered a small decline of 0.5 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.

The latest data from Kantar WorldPanel shows that the recent launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has boosted Apple's sales numbers, with iOS now accounting for 15.4 percent of the market share in the five big European territories. Android still accounts for a majority of the market share at 73.9 percent, with Windows Phone coming in third place at 9.2 percent.

While increasing market saturation and fierce competition in the smartphone space may be a concern, the latest market share stats from IDC show no evidence of both Apple and Samsung slowing down. Numbers published for the first quarter of the year show Apple closing the gap between itself and the rather dominant Samsung.

For years now I've been arguing that market share doesn't matter in mobile. Only I was wrong. Not about market share not mattering, but about why it doesn't matter, at least not yet. Charles Arthur, however, does a fantastic job explaining why. The Guardian:

Last week Techpinions.com posted a really good editorial by John Kirk discussing how much of a joke it is to consider Android the winner in the smartphone space simply because they have the most market share. The very next day, Business Insider tech editor Jay Yarow pubished a post with a headline that read, “Apple Should Be Furious That It Has Such A Tiny Sliver Of The Smartphone Market.” Here's John Gruber’s response at Daring Fireball. And here's my take...

Apple was the top smartphone vender in the United States between December and February according to the latest comScore report. Apple captured 38.9% of a smartphone market of 133.7 million people, up 3.9% from the last measurement period.